


Likelihood of Elevator Anomalies

by rainsoakedshoes



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Derek Hale is Bad at Feelings, Future Fic, M/M, Magic, Prompt Fill, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-13
Updated: 2015-03-13
Packaged: 2018-03-17 16:25:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3536159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainsoakedshoes/pseuds/rainsoakedshoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You’re going to have to talk to me eventually,” Stiles said as the doors closed again. </p>
<p>The elevator rose smoothly for the first few floors, then as they reached the fifth floor the light illuminating their current floor, and the overhead lights, flickered on and off, and the elevator lurched to a stop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Likelihood of Elevator Anomalies

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt fill for the [Sterek Writers Network](http://sterekwriters.tumblr.com/). The prompt was "Stuck in an elevator after they've had a fight".

Stiles slammed the jeep door closed and jogged after Derek.

“Are you seriously walking away from me right now?” Stiles demanded.

“We’re going to be late,” Derek said. He didn’t turn back to look at Stiles.

“ _We’re going to be late_ ,” Stiles mimicked. “Is that really all you’re going to say?”

Derek didn’t reply to that as he strode across the parking lot. “This is the right building, isn’t it?” He asked instead. “When I heard ‘ _witches residence_ ’ this isn’t what I pictured.”

The building in question was a ten story apartment building. It was a little on the older side, but in good condition. Some of the balconies facing the parking lot hard clothes strung up to dry, others had potted plants sitting out in the afternoon sun. One balcony, on the top floor, was overflowing with plants. Green leaves and vines spilled out over the railing, almost reaching down to their downstairs neighbour.

The pack were having a problem with a witch threatening them. Derek and Stiles were there to talk to another witch they had tracked down, to try and gain some advice or maybe even a new ally.

“You damn well know it’s the right place!” Stiles snapped. “Stop trying to change the subject!”

“I hope she’s willing to help us,” Derek continued.

Stiles grabbed Derek’s arm before the werewolf could open the door to the building.

“You don’t get to do this to me!” Stiles said. “You don’t get to kiss me and then pretend it didn’t happen!”

Derek pulled his arm free of Stiles’ grip and opened the door. “It was a mistake.”

Stiles made a frustrated noise and followed Derek into the building. “You said that already. But _you_ kissed _me_ , so I’d appreciate some elaboration. Did you know it was a mistake before you did it, but you did it anyway? Or did you kiss me and then decide that it wasn’t what you wanted?”

Derek didn’t answer because he didn’t know _how_ to answer.

The two men crossed the lobby towards the elevator.

It wasn’t like Derek had planned on kissing Stiles. It had just happened. Stiles had spent the ride over talking about witches and everything he had learned about them recently; how they use magic, how they increase their powers, “good” vs “bad", everything and anything. At one point while Stiles was talking – somewhere between explaining how druids and witches are different and the reality of sacrifices in black magic – Derek had realised that he no longer found Stiles’ talking annoying; it was endearing.

Then they had been standing by the jeep discussing their plan of action for how to get the witch to help them. Stiles had laughed at his own joke, and Derek wasn’t even sure what the joke was, because he had been too focused on the way Stiles’ mouth curved up and how his tongue darted out to wet them.

Derek had acted on impulse, really. One moment he was staring at Stiles’ lips then he was kissing them.

Stiles had started to kiss him back, but then Derek pulled away, mumbling that it was a mistake.

For a brief moment Derek had considered literally running away, but they had a job to do, something that couldn’t wait just because Derek was an idiot with terrible timing. Instead he had turned on heel and headed for the witches building.

So now he had Stiles’ tugging incessantly on his sleeve, demanding to talk about it.

Derek jabbed the call button for the elevator violently and refused to look at Stiles.

“Was it a bet?” Stiles asked. “Were you trying to shut me up? Is this you trying to start a hate sex thing? Because let me tell you you’re succeeding in making me hate you right now.”

The elevator doors opened with a soft ding and the two men stepped inside. Stiles pushed the button for the top floor, then the close door button. Derek crossed his arms and stared at the row of numbers above the door.

“You’re going to have to talk to me eventually,” Stiles said as the doors closed again.

The elevator rose smoothly for the first few floors, then as they reached the fifth floor the light illuminating their current floor and the overhead lights flickered on and off, and the elevator lurched to a stop.

Stiles and Derek both instinctively grabbed the hand rail on the back wall of the elevator.

“What was that?” Stiles asked.

“I don’t know,” Derek said. He couldn’t hear anything in the elevator shaft, or in the hallway outside.

That’s when he realised he couldn’t hear _anything_ outside of the elevator. In an apartment building he should have been able to hear the tell-tale sounds of people moving around, pipes moving water, air conditioning units. But all he could hear was the sound of his and Stiles’ breathing and their heartbeats.

The elevator lurched down again. The light flickered between four and five before finally going out altogether.

Derek carefully moved away from the back wall and pressed the button for the ground floor. Nothing happened.

“Try the emergency button,” Stiles suggested.

Derek pressed the red button, but once again nothing happened. He pushed the button twice more for good measure, but it was no use.

“There should be an alarm or something,” Stiles said.

“Don’t most elevators have a phone too?” Derek asked. He looked up and down at the bank of buttons, but there wasn’t any other kind of emergency call button.

Stiles pulled his phone out from his pocket. “And obviously there’s no cell service in here either.”

Derek pulled out his own phone to check. But of course Stiles was right; there was no service.

“I’m going to try and get the doors open,” Derek said.

“It won’t work,” Stiles told him. “The doors don’t open all the way unless the elevator has come to a proper stop. It’s a safety thing.”

Derek rolled his eyes and stuck his fingers into the crease of the interior doors anyway. He pried the doors open about half a foot before they wouldn’t budge anymore.

“I’m telling you, even with your wolfy powers those doors aren’t opening anymore,” Stiles said as Derek struggled to open the doors further.

Derek reached through the gap and opened the exterior doors. “Maybe if we yell out someone will hear us.”

“Maybe,” Stiles agreed. He walked over to stand beside Derek, and peered out the small gap between the doors.

Derek and Stiles’ eyes were about level with the floor of the hallway outside.

The hallway was dark, there was no light, artificial or otherwise. Even with the doors open Derek still couldn’t hear anyone else in the building. It was starting to unnerve him.

“Hello?” Derek called out into the empty hallway. “Can anyone hear me?”

“Help?!” Stiles tried. “We’re trapped!”

“Someone?! Anyone?”

The hallway was silent and still. No lights came on, no doors opened. There was no response at all to Derek and Stiles’ shouting.

Derek sighed and took a step back away from the doors.

“Someone’s gotta notice the elevator isn’t in service and find us soon, right?” Stiles asked.

“Yeah,” Derek nodded. “Of course. It’s only a matter of time before someone finds us.”

Stiles moved to the back of the elevator car and sat in the left corner. “This day is not going well.”

Derek made a noise of agreement and sat down in the right hand corner of the elevator near the doors, diagonally across from Stiles.

“Did you know-”

Derek held up a hand and cut off Stiles. “I swear to _god_ if you start talking about the number of elevator related deaths per year I will kill you myself.”

“Actually, I was going to talk about how only like one in twelve million elevator rides result in an anomaly, and how lucky we must be to be that one in twelve million,” Stiles said. “And most elevator deaths are maintenance men, or people being strangled by their scarves caught in the door.”

“How do you even know that?”

Stiles shrugged. “Wikipedia.”

Derek huffed out a laugh and looked at the ceiling.

The two men were quiet for a few moments. Derek kept his eyes trained on the ceiling and Stiles drew his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them.

“Why’d you kiss me?” Stiles asked quietly.

“Seriously?” Derek asked.

“Yes, seriously!” Stiles snapped. He threw his arms out wide. “We’ve got nothing but time to talk about it now!” All the anger he had been feeling earlier was back with vengeance. “Why did you kiss me?”

“I-” Derek sighed. “I don’t know.”

“Bullshit!” Stiles’ loud voice echoed in the small space. “Why. Did. You. Kiss. Me?”

“Because I wanted to.” Derek could feel his cheeks burning and he didn’t lower his gaze from the ceiling. “I didn’t really think it through. Obviously.”

“You are so bad at this,” Stiles said.

“What do you want from me?!” Derek demanded, finally looking at Stiles.

“I want you to tell me the truth!” Stiles rested his arms on top of his knees.

“Why’d you kiss me back?” Derek countered after a moment.

“Because I’ve been waiting for you to kiss me since I was sixteen.”

Derek blinked. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Stiles rolled his eyes. “ _Oh_. Now answer my question. Why’d you kiss me?”

Derek stood again. He turned his back on Stiles and faced the elevator doors. The hallway outside was still dark. Stiles wasn’t going to be ignored however, and he stood up as well. He crossed the small space and grabbed the sleeve of Derek’s Henley.

“Please stop trying to run away,” Stiles said, his voice softer, calmer, than it had been. It surprised Derek.

“Like you said.” Derek shrugged. “I’m bad at this.”

Stiles’ grip on Derek’s sleeve lessened until his hand was just lying flat against Derek’s bicep. He stayed quiet, waiting for the werewolf to speak first for a change.

“I like you,” Derek said, voice quiet, although in the quiet of the elevator he might as well have shouted it. “It wasn’t a bet, or anything stupid like that. I like you.”

There was a beat of silence. “What was that?” Stiles asked in a teasing tone. “I didn’t catch that. Did you actually admit you like me?”

Derek shook his head. “You’re such an asshole.”

“Yeah, I am.” Stiles nodded. “But you like me anyway.” He shoved Derek playfully. “You _like_ like me.”

Derek rolled his eyes. “I take it back.”

“Don’t be like that,” Stiles said. “I like you too. If that wasn’t already obvious.”

Before Derek could say anything else, the overhead light flickered off again, pitching the two men into darkness. Stiles’ grip on Derek’s arm tightened again. Then the light came back on and the doors closed on their own accord. The elevator dinged and lurched a little before it started rising smoothly once more.  

Derek and Stiles watched in disbelief as the numbers above the door were illuminated one by one until they finally reached the tenth floor.

When the doors slid open Derek and Stiles escaped the elevator, practically leaping out of it, before something else could happen and trap them again.

“What _was_ that?” Stiles asked.

The elevator doors closed again, and they could hear it start to descend.

Derek looked around the hallway. He could hear people in the building again. He could hear TV’s and music playing, people talking, appliances working. After the silence of the elevator the influx of noise was a bit of a shock.

“Fucking haunted elevators,” Stiles muttered, more to himself than to Derek.

A door opened down the hall and a woman in her forties stuck her head out. She smiled brightly at Derek, who in turn nudged Stiles with his elbow. Stiles followed Derek’s gaze down the hallway to where the woman was.

“I think you boys are looking for me,” the woman said

Derek and Stiles looked at each other, then back at the woman.

“Yeah?” Stiles asked. “You think so?”

“I do. I know one of my sisters has been wreaking havoc with your pack,” she told them. “Although we probably shouldn’t be discussing that in a public hallway. Why don’t the two of you come inside?”

Stiles looked at Derek and shrugged. The human headed down the hallway towards the woman. Derek waited a beat, then followed behind.

When the two men reached the doorway the witch didn’t move out of the way right away. She was leaning against the left side of the door frame.

“By the way,” she said, smiling sweetly at Derek and Stiles. “I’m glad the two of figured out the problems you were having. I could feel the negative energy before you even entered the building.”

Derek narrowed his eyes at the witch. “You were behind that stunt with the elevator?”

The witch stepped out of the doorway and beckoned the two of them inside. “Aren’t you glad I’m on your side and not working with my sister?”

Derek took Stiles’ hand in his, lacing their fingers together. They followed the witch inside.

“I suppose the likelihood of elevator anomalies go up when there’s a witch in the building,” Stiles said.

The witch just laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on [tumblr](http://heavenlyhale.tumblr.com/)


End file.
